SABCL Set of 30 volumes
On Himself Vol. 26 of SABCL 514 pages 1972 Edition
English

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Sri Aurobindo's notes and letters on his life and yoga and letters on Himself and on The Mother.

THEME

On Himself

Compiled from Notes and Letters

  Sri Aurobindo : corresp.

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Sri Aurobindo

Sri Aurobindo's notes and letters on his life and yoga and letters on Himself and on The Mother. In these letters, Sri Aurobindo writes about his life as a student in England, a teacher in Baroda, a political leader in Bengal, and a writer and yogi in Pondicherry. He also comments on his formative spiritual experiences and the development of his yoga.

Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library (SABCL) On Himself Vol. 26 514 pages 1972 Edition
English
 PDF    autobiographical  Sri Aurobindo : corresp.

Part I

Sri Aurobindo on Himself




Beginnings of Yoga




Silence and Action

Since 1908 when I got the silence, I never think with my head or brain—it is always in the wideness generally above the head that the thoughts occur.


What you describe is not at all a drawing away of life-energy; it is simply the effect of voidness and stillness caused in the lower parts by the consciousness being located above. It is quite consistent with action, only one must get accustomed to the idea of the possibility of action under these conditions. In a greater state of emptiness I carried on a daily newspaper and made a dozen speeches in the course of three or four days—but I did not manage that in any way; it happened. The force made the body do the work without any inner activity. The drawing away of the life-energy leaves the body lifeless, helpless, empty and impotent,

Page 88

but it is attended by no experience except a great suffering.


It ought to be possible to read with the inner consciousness looking on and, as it were, seeing at the act of reading. In the condition of absolute inner silence I was making speeches and conducting a newspaper, but all that got itself done without any thought entering my mind or the silence being in the least disturbed or diminished.


When I got the emptiness, it lasted for years. Whatever else came, came in the emptiness, and I could at any time withdraw from the activity into the pure silent peace.









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